Things Researchers Should Rethink

This week from People Nerds: the mind behind equity-centered design, a primer on benchmarking studies, and a recap of our panel.

The new architects of change Creative Reaction Lab's mission to redesign systems of oppression is crucial for designers, researchers, and communities everywhere. We talked to founder Antionette Carroll about how their curriculum of healing, embeddedness, and empowerment works to dismantle the status quo.   LOOK FORWARD How do you know your insights are improving things? Research insights are important (and water is wet). But showing that your insights actually improves the user experience over time can be difficult. Luckily, there's a solution: benchmarking studies.  BENCH(MARK) WARMER Maybe it's not enough to "just do research" Our real job as UXRs is to inspire better, human-centered decisions. We can employ many tactics to meet this goal; democratization is one of them. Here are nine principles we should take to heart if we're going to democratize responsibly. SCALE SAFER More we're discussing: Measure your growth as a user researcher with this framework + template for assessing your research interviews. Learn to tell better stories (and more effectively move your stakeholders) with advice from Meg Ferrill at The Moth.  Get a handle on which questions call for which methods with this handy guide for choosing the right research methodology. What we're hearing:  Stacey Houston at Facebook Research published a call-to-action for addressing racism in UX design. It's an important look at what "doing the work" can look like.  Here's an interesting look at how UX researchers' "pathway to leadership" may be distinctive from the designer's way forward.  What if your unmoderated test participants cheat? Here's how to isolate, and account for, unrepresentative data. dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  The new architects of change Creative Reaction Lab's mission to redesign systems of oppression through equity-centered design is not only important—it's crucial for communities everywhere. We talked to founder Antionette Carroll where research and design need to grow.   LOOK FORWARD How do you know your insights are improving things? Research insights are important (and water is wet). But showing that your insights actually improves the user experience over time can be difficult. Luckily, there's a solution: benchmarking studies.  BENCH(MARK) WARMER More we're discussing: Run a better retrospective, and you'll start running better projects. Here's a step-by-step look at effective retros for researchers.  Meg Ferrill, pro-storyteller at The Moth, broke down the storytelling basics UX practitioners should know. Read 'em here, and become a better user advocate.  ICYMI our democratization panel, read this inside look at how Thumbtack scaled research from three to 200+ stakeholders. What we're hearing:  Facebook Research published a helpful deep dive on setting up an optimal (or at least functional) home research station. Great read from the folks on EPIC on retooling the ethnographic skill set for "resilience" (ie. risk analysis and quality assurance). If you're new to the world of research ops, NN/g just published a solid (but succinct) guide. dscout is a company composed of People Nerds working to make context-rich human insight an everyday habit across organizations. The dscout platform—Diary, Live, Recruit, and Express—enables remote qualitative research that brings researchers into the moments experienced and shared by real people. Curious about the platform or working with dscout? Talk to an account executive.  dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences